aquaponic gardening thread (raising fish and veggies together)

[itsasmallfarm]

hello every

today am going to start a thread about aqauponics, and wondering does anyone else here do or try aquaponics as well. am getting my setup this spring, so far i ordered 30 rainbow trouts for my small farm/garden, and plan on growing kohlrabi and lettuce (well the lettuce is for my chickens) in this cold water/weather system.
for those who do not know what aquaponics is its the idea of growing veggies with fish poop in the most simple of terms.
now anyone else please share if you have ever tried or are currently doing aquaponics or even hydroponics i would like to hear about your systems, the veggies you grow in them and the fish (what type etc..)

but thank you for reading and have a great day its asmallfarm out.

 

[chickengr]

I like the idea but know nothing about that. I hope people will join the thread so that we can learn something new.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

I like the idea but know nothing about that. I hope people will join the thread so that we can learn something new.

its a pretty new idea it seems that it was invented about 15-20 years ago from what i can tell from research, but its pretty much the basics that there is 3 living components, the plants, the fish and the bacteria which makes up the bio filter (it breaks down the poop and ammonia to plant nutrients) but it takes the basic flaws of hydroponics (always having the change water) and aquaculture (which has all the fish waste to get rid of) and combines the two into a man-made ecosystem. but in the end you get veggies and fish (depends if you want to eat the fish or want like goldfish or koi for looks) for me its about getting veggies for me and my family and the spares going to my chickens and the fish is because i enjoy it but it cost so much where i live.

but i do hope others join as am rather new to this idea as well and would love to learn from someone who has expercine in this field rather then just reading books on the subject but anyways have a good day

 

[lazy gardener]

A couple down in Florida were working with it last year. They had a pretty active thread for a while. They had a lot of difficulty getting the Nitrogen to cycle properly. I think they gave up after a while. I think they were working with Tilapia, perhaps cat fish and shrimp. Forget the details. They've been doing this in China for a lot longer than we have in the states.

 

[chickengr]

its a pretty new idea it seems that it was invented about 15-20 years ago from what i can tell from research, but its pretty much the basics that there is 3 living components, the plants, the fish and the bacteria which makes up the bio filter (it breaks down the poop and ammonia to plant nutrients) but it takes the basic flaws of hydroponics (always having the change water) and aquaculture (which has all the fish waste to get rid of) and combines the two into a man-made ecosystem. but in the end you get veggies and fish (depends if you want to eat the fish or want like goldfish or koi for looks) for me its about getting veggies for me and my family and the spares going to my chickens and the fish is because i enjoy it but it cost so much where i live.

but i do hope others join as am rather new to this idea as well and would love to learn from someone who has expercine in this field rather then just reading books on the subject but anyways have a good day

many years ago I heard that in china people use a system like that: they put fish in the rice fields and keep pigs in the raised wooden houses (or whatever you call it). so pig's waste feed fish and fertilize rice fields.

can you give us more details about aquaponic gardening?

 

[lazy gardener]

Quote: They also use the same system with chickens over the water. There are some interesting books on the subject. It's a detail that's rolling around in my mind for very small use, perhaps a couple of 20 gal long tanks stocked with gold fish in the basement to grow salad greens when the green house shuts down. If I could keep the green house from freezing solid in mid winter, it might be interesting to use gold fish/water as a thermal mass to help winter temps stay up. A deep bed of composting manure would also generate increased heat for winter green house. The problem in using Aquaponics in my climate would be the huge temperature fluctuations, and the difficulty of keeping the tanks cycling properly in cold weather, and keeping the water from getting too warm if used in a green house application. It would require heat input part of the year, and automated venting the rest of the year. My green house is way too small to be useful with this kind of project. Aquaponic system is tabled for me until I have more time to invest in the learning and application curve. ie: after retirement.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

many years ago I heard that in china people use a system like that: they put fish in the rice fields and keep pigs in the raised wooden houses (or whatever you call it). so pig's waste feed fish and fertilize rice fields.

can you give us more details about aquaponic gardening?

i sure can give some more details if your interested in it

this time i will go a bit in depth about the fish, pretty much any fish (besides salt water but i will go into that a bit later) can be used but others have more use (if that is the right term) the most used fish that i can tell seems to be tilipia or catfish as they can handle warm water and low oxygen content as well. for me my province has yet to approve those two species for aquaculture with out a a permit process so am stuck with trout (any type) but i could care less as i love eating trout and love fishing for them. but there a cold water species so i can only grow cold or spring/fall crops such as kohlrabi and lettuce, cabbage etc.. where if you used a warm water fish you could grow much more like the summer crops for example tomatoes, squash, melons and pumpkins etc... now for a bit of detail on salt water species depending where you live sometimes there are salt water fish available for aquaculture (such as some us states) now there is experiments going on right now testing fish which require a low level of salt in the water, as some plants thrive in a semi-salt water (i know pineapples i believe are one), but there also is fish that you don't eat such as gold fish and koi (or really any pet store fish) but you can easily set up a small aquaponic system with these fish.

now i could go on and if you want more i would be glad to share

 

[chickengr]

i sure can give some more details if your interested in it

this time i will go a bit in depth about the fish, pretty much any fish (besides salt water but i will go into that a bit later) can be used but others have more use (if that is the right term) the most used fish that i can tell seems to be tilipia or catfish as they can handle warm water and low oxygen content as well. for me my province has yet to approve those two species for aquaculture with out a a permit process so am stuck with trout (any type) but i could care less as i love eating trout and love fishing for them. but there a cold water species so i can only grow cold or spring/fall crops such as kohlrabi and lettuce, cabbage etc.. where if you used a warm water fish you could grow much more like the summer crops for example tomatoes, squash, melons and pumpkins etc... now for a bit of detail on salt water species depending where you live sometimes there are salt water fish available for aquaculture (such as some us states) now there is experiments going on right now testing fish which require a low level of salt in the water, as some plants thrive in a semi-salt water (i know pineapples i believe are one), but there also is fish that you don't eat such as gold fish and koi (or really any pet store fish) but you can easily set up a small aquaponic system with these fish.

now i could go on and if you want more i would be glad to share

interested!

I am concerned about hot summers and water temperatures. but where there's a will there's a way I guess.

for me trouts would be fine.